1871 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
417 
was used safely until there was an opportunity 
to have it repaired, more than a week later. 
make the wire slip tightly around it (fig. 5), will 
remove all kinks, and leave the wire smooth 
and straight. By the same 
process, a wire that has been 
once used can be again made 
smooth, to be wound on the 
spool for future use. 
Fig. 2. —MENDING A BUCKLE. 
The break in the spring is shown in fig. 3, and 
the repairing in fig. 4. 
We have sometimes while plowing mended a 
broken trace-cliain in two minutes’ time, saving 
a two hours’ trip to the blacksmith to have an 
S-hook put in; and a broken whiffletree has 
been so bound as to be made strong enough for 
a season’s work without leaving the field. In 
'short, there is hardly anything that can be 
mended with a string or a rope that can not be 
much better done with copper wire; and no 
farmer who has once learned its utility would 
willingly be without it. 
If the supply is kept on a stick or a spool, it 
should be wound on so evenly and tightly that 
it will lie perfectly solid, and allow a good strain 
to be given as it is wound around a broken 
spade-handle, or anything else that is to be 
mended. For this reason, the wire, as it comes 
Fig. 3. —THE BROKEN SPRING. 
from the store, should be fastened by an end to a 
nail in the fence, or otherwise, so that it. can be 
Fig. 4. —THE SPRING MENDED. 
drawn taut. One turn of the wire near the 
fence should then be taken around a hammer 
Fig. 5.— STRAIGHTENING THE WIRE. 
handle, or other smooth piece of hard wood, 
which being drawn back in such a way as to 
Preserving Roots. — As 
roots are a very bulky crop, 
and require much room to 
store them in cellars, in fact 
much more than many barns 
have capacity for, it is often more convenient 
to store most of them in the field. We are of 
opinion that they keep 
better thus stored—com¬ 
ing out much juicier and 
sweeter at the eud of the 
winter. A very con¬ 
venient and rapid mode of 
pitting them is to take the 
plow and open out a row 
of hollows through the 
field, twenty feet long and 
six feet wide, leaving 
spaces of six feet between 
the ends of each, finishing 
them with the shovel until 
the pits are a foot deep. 
Draw the turnips, and pile 
them up as high as they 
will stay 
without roll¬ 
ing dowu. Then, with the plow, 
turn furrows on to the heaps, and 
keep plowing earth towards them 
until there is sufficient to cover 
them a foot and a half in depth. 
As the pits are in a row, this is 
rapidly and easily done by passing 
down one side and lip the other. 
The roots are then in heaps of 
about 200 bushels each, which can be taken 
successively as they are wanted for feeding. In 
storing roots in this manner, they 
will be sometimes found touched 
with frost at the north end of the 
pits, unless some coarse litter is 
thrown over them there as a pro¬ 
tection. This should be done if 
possible, but otherwise no protec¬ 
tion is necessary. If this plan is 
followed in storing roots, no great 
expense is nec¬ 
essarily incur¬ 
red iu providing cellar room. 
A cellar that will hold one 
pit at a time conveniently is 
all that is necessary, as that 
amount can be drawn in at 
any time without trouble. 
Carts are much handier than 
wagons for such work as 
hauling roots—the unloading 
is the work of but a moment. 
Bone Mills. 
Increased attention is be¬ 
ing given to the use of bones 
for manure. It is quite im¬ 
perative on farmers to re¬ 
store them to the soil whence 
they have been taken if they 
would keep up the fer¬ 
tility of their farms. The great difficulty in the 
way is the high price of the bone when reduced 
to a proper state for manure. Bones can be got 
in quantities for $20 a ton, but ground bone is 
worth something like twice that sum. We are 
often asked if there is a machine for crushing 
bones that can be got at a reasonable price, and 
can be relied upon as efficient. Several bone 
mills are advertised, but we have not seen them 
in operation, and can not say how well they 
work. We give a drawing of a stamping 
machine, which we think might be put up for 
the purpose of crushing bones for tlieir custom¬ 
ers by some of the country millers who stamp 
and grind plaster. The bones might be after¬ 
wards ground in a pair of burr-stones used for 
plaster or feed. This mill might lie put together 
for a comparatively small sum by any rnill- 
STAMPING-MILL EOR BONES. 
wrighf, as it is wholly of wood excepting the 
stamp-beads and stamping block, which are 
cast iron. Mills of this kind can be run by 
five horse-power. Such a business as this, in¬ 
teresting as it does a whole community, could 
be well undertaken by a co-operative company 
of farmers, or an agricultural society, who could 
doubtless rent the power of almost any country 
miller who has water-power. There is no patent 
on the stamp-mill. It has been in use for many 
years for breaking stone and the hardest kind of 
ore, both of iron and copper,and has done its work 
well. We do net sec, therefore, why it should 
uot crush bones of the toughest kind perfectly. 
An Ice-House with a Cool-Room. 
We are requested to give plans of an ice¬ 
house which shall include an apartment in 
ELEVATION OE ICE-HOUSE. 
which meat or milk may be kept cool. One 
very important item in putting up such a build¬ 
ing is the location. This should be dry, and if 
